Tag Archives: Pride

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Chapter-a-Day Matthew 18

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NTN Trivia Action
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At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?” Matthew 18:1 (MSG)

Wendy and I ate lunch out yesterday. The restaurant where we ate participated in a national trivia network, so I grabbed one of the controllers and we played as we ate lunch. I’m proud to say we finished number one at the local restaurant where we ate (we were the only ones playing). They even showed that we ranked 19th in the nation for that particular game. I was feeling pretty good about that.

There’s something in our pride at wanting to be number one. It’s especially obvious in men, though I think its just as present in women – it just masks itself in different ways.  It starts on the playground, continues onto the court or ball field, then on to our educational system (What was your class rank?), and even into the corporate world. My friend, who has been interviewing incessantly for new jobs, was told by others that he should lie about his sales numbers and rankings on his resume because that was all that employers cared about. Maybe it is. Even fellow believers admitted to him that they lied about their “rank” to get a job and seemed unapologetically non-chalant about their deception.

This desire to be the best runs so deep inside us. I sometimes wonder how much it affects us in ways we don’t even notice. Is it so ingrained in my nature that I am blind to its negative effect on my life, my character, and my spirit?

Today, I want to be on the lookout for the existence of pride in my heart and life. If Jesus teaches me to root out the things that pollute my spirit, then I have to be willing to look for it.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 50

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Adam and Eve Leave Eden
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“Do you get it, Mister Pride? I’m your enemy!”
   Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
Jeremiah 50:31a (MSG)

When I am given the opportunity to preach or teach, I always try to boil my message down into one sentence or statement. I ask myself “What’s the one thing I’m trying to say?” and try to state it clearly. Then, as I fill in the outline of my message, I continue to ask myself if my outline, my illustrations, and my content bring clarity to my one theme or distract from it.

Maybe that’s why I find myself looking for this main point when I read chapters like the one today. It’s a long, rambling prophetic message and it’s easy to get lost in the sheer length and redundancy of it. So, my eyes and my heart start looking for the real message beneath the text. What’s the main point God’s wants me to take away from this?

Today, I found it in the verse above. God’s beef with Babylon is really pride (read the first five chapters of Daniel for more detail). God and pride are enemies. Pride led to Lucifer’s fall. Pride led to Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Pride, the inordinate opinion of my own dignity, importance, and merit, has led to countless stupid choices and painful experiences.

Today, I’m asking God to teach me humility in greater measure.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 9

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“Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom.
   Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits.
Don’t let the rich brag of their riches.
   If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.” Jeremiah 9:23 (MSG)

This last week a machine randomly pulled some numbered balls out of a machine and two people immediately became $190 million dollars richer. These two people were no better than anyone else. They did nothing to earn their reward but take a chance.

It’s easy for me to see life as really a big lottery. I was blessed to be born to a loving family in a nice middle-class neighborhood in the middle western part of the richest country in the world. I did nothing to earn this heritage. I was blessed to hear the Message of Jesus told to me as a young person. With the simple act of faith, believing Jesus is who he said he was, and did what he said he did, I am a recipient of God’s unmerited favor; I am given the riches of His his love, forgiveness and blessing. I did nothing to earn this. I am no better than anyone else. I simply believed.

If there is anything I have to brag about it is this:
God has done great things and has been gracious to me.

God, help me today to keep my head on straight about that and act accordingly. Please and thank you.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Luke 5

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Jesus and Saint Peter, Gospel of Matthew 4.18-20
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Simon Peter, when he saw [the miracle], fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.” Luke 5:8 (MSG)

Wendy and I were talking last week on our drive home from the lake. We were listening to the radio and a guy mentioned that he considered himself such bad person that God couldn’t possibly love or forgive him.

“I think that’s pride,” Wendy said. As I thought about it, I had to agree with her. There is an insidious side to pride. “I’m so terrible that God couldn’t possibly forgive me” is really just the dark side of “I’m so great God will surely accept me.”

We then talked about our own experiences with shame and guilt. On our conversational journey we came to discover that we had similar experiences. We each experienced periods of life when we pushed God away, but it wasn’t about feeling too guilty or too much shame. Our reticence to accept God’s forgiveness came out of the knowledge that to accept God’s gift of grace and forgiveness would incur a debt of gratitude and a call to walk away from the illicit behaviors to which we clung (and enjoyed).

Sometimes we push God away because, like Peter, we just want to be left alone. We don’t want to change.

Thankfully, God is tenacious in pursuit.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Chronicles 16

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At that, Asa lost his temper. Angry, he put Hanani in the stocks. At the same time Asa started abusing some of the people. 2 Chronicles 16:10 (MSG)

“Shoot the messenger.” – Shakespeare, Henry IV

In my daily vocation I have the opportunity to stand in the shoes of the herald, and sometimes those of the prophet. I walk into a boardroom, or perhaps a small conference room, and share what customers think of my client and their service. The news isn’t always pretty and clients haven’t always responded gracefully.

There is a long, historic tradition of responding to truth (often, the truth is ill news) by shooting the messenger. Shakespeare may have been the first to say it in such a way that it stuck in our collective psyche, but the actualy act of shooting the messenger goes as far back as human history. We see it in today’s chapter.

Asa blew it. Hanani confronts him with the plain truth of the matter, and reveals the tragic flaw in Asa’s actions. King Asa responds, not in repentance, but by lashing out in anger. He has poor Hanani, the prophet, thrown into the stocks and takes his anger out on every one around him.

Having been the bearer of bad news, I hope that I am a better hearer of truth when confronted with bad news regarding my own words or actions. I hope that I can listen with humility, and accept truth graciously.

Hearing the truth is often difficult. Responding appropriately is harder still.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1Chronicles 7

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Tom & Girls 2010 05 These were Asher's sons, all of them responsible, excellent in character, and brave in battle—good leaders. 1 Chronicles 7:40a (MSG)

Driving away from a client meeting in Wisconsin yesterday, my phone rang. Clear as a bell, on the other end of the line, was my daughter Madison calling from India. She is there on a month long mission to work with the poor and orphans and to encourage the local believers there. Her childlike "HI DADDY!" was music to my ears (she is doing great, by the way).

This weekend we get away to celebrate Taylor's 4th of July birthday (As Grandma says, "She's our firecracker!"). Taylor and Clayton are working hard this summer and prepping to help lead a team of Central students to Haiti to help with the on-going relief work.

Last night I talked on the phone to my old high school buddy Doug. He was telling me about his kids, and talking about what good kids they are. We had a dad moment, appreciating how great it feels to have good kids.

When I read about the sons of Asher, my heart nodded in understanding. It is such a blessing to have good kids. It is wonderful to look at your children and see "them responsible, excellent in character, and brave." As I tell them, "no pop could be prouder."

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Kings 1

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Auditions20lr The king then sent a third captain with his fifty men. For a third time, a captain with his fifty approached Elijah. This one fell on his knees in supplication: "O Holy Man, have respect for my life and the souls of these fifty men! Twice now lightning from out of the blue has struck and incinerated captains with their fifty men; please, I beg you, respect my life!" 2 Kings 1:13-14 (MSG)

My wife and I have been involved in community theater for several years. We've served administratively on the board of directors and have directed and produced a number of shows. One of the challenging parts of directing a show is choosing a small cast from a large host of people who audition. Most actors in my community are wonderful people to work with. There are those individuals, however, who walk into the audition with attitude to spare, expecting you to cast them in the leading role. If you don't, they throw a tantrum and threaten legal action (right, as if that's just the kind of person I want to work with every night on stage for six weeks).

Throughout the journey, I've had opportunity to be in positions of leadership in family, church, work and community. As a leader or manager, nothinge turns me on edge faster than being approached by someone with an attitude of disrespectful expectation. Requests are phrased as demands, as if they are rights. Humility is absent as appeals are made as a challenge to your authority.

The first two captains sent to Elijah approached him with attitude, demanding his audience with the king. The subtext of their attitude was that the spiritual should bow to the temporal. God, and his servant, should bow to the king's demand. Pride. Expectation. The first two captains' attitude was a word-picture of the root problem. The king and his men had no respect for God and His power.

How do I approach those in authority over me? How do I approach God?

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Daniel 5

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The handwriting on the wall.  "God sent the hand that wrote on the wall, and this is what is written: mene, teqel, and peres. This is what the words mean:

Mene: God has numbered the days of your rule and they don't add up.
Teqel: You have been weighed on the scales and you don't weigh much.
Peres: Your kingdom has been divided up and handed over to the Medes and Persians." 

Daniel 4:24-26 (MSG)

There once was a man who built a business from ground up. He worked from dawn to dusk and often into the night. Through the blood, sweat, and toil of his efforts the business yielded a tidy fortune. After many years, the man died suddenly and the business was handed over to his children, who had grown up in the ease of their father's fortune. In their privileged upbringing, the children refused to learn or appreciate the principles of hard work, faithful stewardship and shrewd business practices on which their father built his business. Under their leadership the business quickly failed and their fortunes were squandered.

This parable is actually a common tale, and we see it again in today's chapter. Nebuchadnezzar was a great king who learned his lessons the hard way, but did learn his lessons. His son, Belshazzar, was a spoiled brat who did not learn from the lessons of his father. The "handwriting was on the wall," and it cost him the kingdom.

Living wisely and living well requires us to learn, not only from our own mistakes, but also the mistakes and successes of others. Seeing the patterns and principles of success and failure at work all around us, and adopting the lessons learned in our own lives is crucial. By doing so, God provides us with insights and wisdom we might not otherwise learn if we remain singularly focused on ourselves.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Daniel 4

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No accident. All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. Just twelve months later, he was walking on the balcony of the royal palace in Babylon and boasted, "Look at this, Babylon the great! And I built it all by myself, a royal palace adequate to display my honor and glory!" Daniel 4:28-30 (MSG)

While in college, my sister and I were in a bad car accident. It was a late night on an icy road and our car spun out of control into oncoming traffic. In the panic of the moment as the car spun and I comprehended the headlights of cars coming at us I was stripped of any conscious thought. I reacted in panic. I cried out the name of Jesus in a sudden, guttural one word prayer for help.

Moments later it was eerily still and I remember blood flowing down my face. I was in shock as I reached over to make sure my sister was still alive. Again, the only word I could utter was the name of Jesus.

When we walk through a difficult stretch of life's journey, it's almost natural to cry out to God. We are in need. We are in pain. We are stretched and weary and feel our spiritual reserves on empty. We cry out to God and cling to Him.

However, when things are good we tend to forget. When the road seems easy and all that we do seems to succeed we don't feel the need. Our tank is full and we are blessed. How easily we forget to recognize that the blessing we experience is not of ourselves.

The story of Nebuchadnezzar is a wonderful word picture reminding me that all that I have, all that I enjoy, and every blessing I receive is a gift of God. It is not of myself. Today, I'm reminded to recognize my utter need of God in good times as well as bad. I want my heart to react in a desperate prayer whether I'm spinning out of control or leisurely driving down smooth, straight roads. 

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 140

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The law of the playground. I prayed, "God, you're my God! Listen, God! Mercy! Psalm 140:6 (MSG)

I remember, as a kid, playing a game called "Mercy." It was your typical alpha male, king of the mountain, game of physical domination and abject humiliation. I'm sure it was created by some bully named Zeke who thought it up after he'd already given wedgies to every kid on the playground. Basically, two people face each other and put their hands together as if they were giving each other high fives. However, they lace their fingers together so that their hands are now clasping. Then they try to bend the other person's hands back until one of them is on their knees in submission and cries, "Mercy!"

How easily we come to equate "mercy" with defeat and humiliation. How quickly mercy becomes a cry to be avoided as we hang desperately to our pride and rugged self-sufficiency. As a child on the playground I learned that asking for "mercy" was a repugnant admission of defeat.

But, God is no school ground bully. If life were a mere playground game, God would have sent Jesus to be King of the Mountain. From his throne, Jesus would tyrannically force people in submission to his will. Instead, God sent Jesus to suffer humiliation and death on our behalf. The way of salvation became, not a meritous reward we earn in the dominating power of our own goodness, but an undeserved gift to any who are willing to pick up their own cross, follow Jesus and cry to God: "Mercy!"

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